The Power Jesus' Touch

In today’s Gospel, Luke 5: 12-16, “there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, ‘Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.’  Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I do will it. Be made clean.’”  Healing flowed out of Jesus through the entire body of the leper. No longer was he "full of leprosy," but full of grace from a God of compassion and love.

 We live in a world “full of leprosy, the leprosy of sin:  the sin of human trafficking, drug trafficking, corruption, cheating, sexual promiscuity, lying, dominating others, exploiting the weak and the vulnerable, using  violence to solve problems. and so much more.  Sin invades all of life in some way. You and I fall into Satan’s trap, as well.   In every Mass, Jesus stretches out his hand through the Scripture readings and through the liturgical prayers ; He literally touches us in the Eucharist, coming into our beings to cleanse us of our sin.  When we bring the sinful world to Him during the offertory, the consecration and the communion rite of the Mass  and say: “Lord, if you wish, you can make…[the world] clean,” Jesus says “I will do it.”  Jesus is doing it, one person at a time, one day at a time. Jesus is doing it in your life and in mine.

In the first reading of today’s liturgy, 1 John 5: 5-13, John raises the question “Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?.”  The answer: We are! Just as Jesus was not afraid to touch the leper, may you and I be not afraid to touch others with the healing power of Christ, believing in God's power within us. May none of us be afraid of the "leprosy" within ourselves, the dark "spots" that need to be brought out into the open for Jesus' healing. May we have the courage of the leper to approach Jesus and say: "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean." Jesus is waiting for us!